Ask Joe: Where have the wild geese gone?

From the Ask Joe file, one of our viewers has a question about something missing, and that is the geese.

Don Timmerman wrote in asking a simple question. He wants to know where have all the wild geese gone?

He said it is odd to find a disappearance of so many geese and he is baffled by it.

Answer:

Joe stopped by Virginia Lake, and saw a few geese in the area, but not nearly as many geese as you would normally see. So what is going on?

Joe contacted Chris Healy at the Nevada Division of Wildlife. He said they did a round-up recently and collected 472 geese. The round-ups were started years ago to minimize the danger of geese disrupting local air traffic.

The geese are moved to wildlife areas around the state. Some of them end up by Lake Mead in southern Nevada.

Healy said the geese that are here are molting this time of year, that is losing their feathers, so they cannot fly. That is why you do not see them out and about. The molting period lasts from late May through July.

After the molting period ends, we should start to see some of them making an appearance around the area.